One gets the feeling that no moment in Chechnya’s history has been as roundly condemned by the world as this current human rights violation. The US State Department, the UN, and the majority of European governments have demanded an immediate cessation of the detention and execution of gay men (link in Russian). Chechens question both the scale of the repression, while the republic’s authorities have dismissed the allegations as groundless, denying the very existence of queer people within the republic. Up until now, discussion of sexual minorities within Chechnya has been taboo.